Financial misconduct ousts Nissan chair

Posted by & filed under Corporate Governance, Ethics.

Description:  Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn has been ousted for financial misconduct. This is shocking news for the man credited with turning the company around. The details of the investigation have not been made public, but one aspect seems to be a under reporting of Ghosn’s compensation. Ghosn has been arrested along with a Nissan director… Read more »

Hey Ticketmaster!

Posted by & filed under Ethics.

Description:  Have you ever wondered if you were paying a bit too much for those tickets you’ve been buying from Ticketmaster? Well, joint undercover research by the CBC and the Toronto Star has revealed some disturbing news. It appears that Ticketmaster is permitting high volume scalpers to use its TradeDesk system. Scalpers can buy significant… Read more »

Blowing the Whistle

Posted by & filed under Ethics.

Description:  This Labour Day CBC radio took the title of the day to heart by hosting a special Workplace Whistleblower documentary https://www.cbc.ca/radio/it-s-in-their-dna-what-makes-people-blow-the-whistle-over-their-silent-counterparts-1.4791859 . Whistleblowers bring forward problems in their workplaces, but as can be seen in the accompanying article, blowing the whistle can mean the end of their careers. Interestingly enough, the problems with the Pheonix… Read more »

Equifax insider

Posted by & filed under Data security, Ethics.

Description: Many of us recall the Equifax data hack last year. Approximately 150 million consumers may have had their private data fall into the hands of the hackers. And many were shocked to hear last year that Equifax waited a number of weeks before revealing the security breach to the public. Now we are finding… Read more »

Sentencing the Knowledge House leaders

Posted by & filed under Ethics.

Description: At one time, the e-education company Knowledge House was a well-respected leader in Nova Scotia’s tech sector. But that, as they say, was some time ago. With over 100 employees in the late 1990s, Knowledge House imploded in 2001 when its share price collapsed. On Friday, two key players from the company’s executive suite… Read more »

Twitter posts a profit

Posted by & filed under e-Commerce, Ethics.

Description: After years of losses, Twitter has finally posted a quarterly profit. New tools that have helped to keep users online longer could be behind the recent success. This is definitely better news for Twitter than all the 2017 talk of how Russian bots may have infiltrated the social media platform and influenced the 2016… Read more »

Really? I Can Cheat at Monopoly?

Posted by & filed under Ethics.

Description: There’s a new version of Monopoly now: Cheater’s Monopoly. That’s right, a version that let’s you cheat. The new set features 15 cheat cards that allow you to  take advantage of the other players and to even steal from the bank. Now we know that some of our older siblings did that to us when… Read more »

Which way do you slice this one?

Posted by & filed under Ethics, Financial Accounting.

Description: Canada’s Competition Bureau has launched an investigation into alleged price-fixing in Canada’s bread industry. Experts appeared surprised by the news, given the recent deflationary trends in the bread and rolls category. But the investigation reportedly stretches back as far as 2001, so it will be interesting to see what emerges. Date: November 1, 2017… Read more »

Mr. Morneau’s place in Provence

Posted by & filed under Auditing, Ethics.

Description: Friday CBC revealed that Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau waited two years before he disclosed his ownership stake in a company that owns a villa in Provence, France to the ethics commissioner.  A spokesperson for Mr. Morneau stated the oversight was simply the result of “early administrative confusion,” though CBC noted that the disclosure… Read more »

Atcon redux

Posted by & filed under Auditing, Ethics.

Description: For the second time, New Brunswick Auditor General Kim MacPherson has audited  a 2009 decision by the then Liberal government to grant over $60 million in loan guarantees to the construction company Atcon. When the floundering firm failed, the province’s citizens were on the hook for the millions in lost funds while the then… Read more »